Today was the day I had to do it....

For the past week, I had been walking past my kitchen counter looking at "stuff" piling up. It is the central gathering place for everyone's "stuff". I looked at it and kept saying to myself , "I need to get my hands on this." I just felt like it was going to take more time and energy than I could give. Maybe you have a space like this too?  I think most of us do. Fortunately or unfortunately, we have alot of counter space in our kitchen and I think that is what gives my family permission to dump here! The other problem we have in our home is that there is no office. So this particular area of the counter is really a mini office minus the filing cabinet! It is a challenging space even for ME! It works when I am diligently protecting the space. If I let my guard down for a day, I know someone is going to stick something here that doesn't belong. 

Today was the day I was tired of looking at it all over the counter. For giggles, I decided...

I had the blues, the post vacation blues....

It felt like a hangover. It was from the high of my vacation to the low of facing everyday life. Let me just say that I had really needed the time off!! Running my business while still working a full time job had wore me out. 

I can't lie about this, I was totally overwhelmed when I got home not to mention unmotivated. I looked around and saw a mountain of things to do and only a day to get it all done. Yes, even organizers get overwhelmed with our own stuff! 

I knew I was going to be in trouble if I didn't get myself together. I thought about what I would tell a client and here's what I did....

First, I unpacked. Seems basic but it is that thing that people will avoid. I've seen people walk around the packed suitcases on the bedroom floor for days. Once I unpacked, I triggered positive momentum in my body and I started to feel like I was coming alive! Mentally, this forced me to get back in the moment and stop living in...

Summer is a great time to de-clutter and reorganize. Here's why I believe this to be true:

1. More time to do this kind of work
2. It makes sense to do this when you have children as it is now the end of the school year
3. More hands to help if you have children home
4. Great way to spend a staycation
5. Seems like a popular time of year to move

Now let me expand my thoughts on this.....

When you have children you spend alot of time running them around in the evenings after you get home from work during the school year. For many of us, that seems to slow down with summertime. Why not, spend a designated amount of time on a particular project? For example, you could set aside a half hour per evening to work on a closet in your house. This could be done sooner if you could designate more time but anything is better than nothing!!

With the end of the school year comes many pieces of paper, awards, etc. This is a great time to take a picture of the artwork and let your child select which...

So this blog is about everyone else.....

This is for the person who is ORGANIZED but living with the DISORGANIZED, is that you??  In Digging Deeper, I talk about how we can overcome those around us who are less than inspired to live in an organized space. What I have found is that COMMUNICATION is key to success. I know that word gets thrown around alot but it is true. You have to do a couple of things:
1. Share your goal for the living space
2. Be a good role model
3. Cheer them on-positive reinforcement
4. Celebrate

So, let's break them down....
1.) Sharing your goal for the space with those you live with is probably the step most people forget to do. We ASSUME others will know what we are trying to achieve. They can't know so you have to share it with them. I don't care if you draw it on paper, cut out pictures from magazines, etc it has to be done. Your definition of organized is just that, YOURS. Mine may be very different. So be clear and concise!

2.) Be a good role...

Mother's day may be over but it is never too late to honor your mother. 

I personally think that you should honor your mom each and every day! Every day moms must be ready to answer the call to provide the physical or emotional support at any level. No two days are alike. No two children are alike. No crisis is like the other. How can we be celebrated for doing all that? It is our call. The moments that give us pause for celebration come when we least expect them. A "thank you", a random hug, an "I love you" or the very rare, "you were right!" We may have to go for days, weeks or years without hearing these beautiful words.

Our spiritual motherhood carries us through those times. Sometimes sweet memories help too. I know that I use those alot in dealing with my teenagers!! I find a sweet memory from when they were little and cling to that! Some of us may never get these moments. What carries them through when they have a troubled or infirmed child? God, will carry them through....

I normally do not give out weight loss advice! I don't give out weight loss advice because I don't consider myself a fitness/nutrition professional, other than what I personally follow. This is different! What I am sharing with you embodies what I do know with what I've suspected. 

Decluttering your home will actually help you lose weight.....
I know you are wondering how this can possibly be. Well, when you declutter a space you feel so much better and this carries over to how you feel about YOURSELF! Let's think about what decluttering your kitchen could do for you. Disorganization and clutter make eating healthy extremely difficult. When you have your kitchen and areas like your pantry or cupboards organized you can make better decisions regarding what you eat. 
Organization in general sets you up to better plan your meals and grocery list. This makes it less likely you will find yourself turning to fast food or the pizza deliveryman. 
...

Finally, we have started to settle into some sort of routine around here. I love a routine don't you? Knowing where I have to be on a regular basis brings me comfort in this crazy, unpredictable world. Where I live there has been multiple snow events which did nothing to help get us into a routine. It has been like this since January! Now, we are feeling the effects(minimally) of spring and the routine is new again! Remember, I told you we hadn't settled into the other routine? Yes, and now we are on to a new one. This routine is the craziest of them all for me.....

This one involves 2 kids playing sports! You know where this is going if, you have children and they play sports or are involved in other activities. Add to this, my husband working extra hours at his job and you have a perfect storm of CRAZY!!!!!!!!! Pick this one up and get the other one there, make dinner, wash the dirty uniform, sound familiar!! I say, "Calgon take...

Anyone who knows me knows that I try to be a good couponer but I really fail at it miserably. I admire the extreme couponers because I think they truly possess a gift for figuring all of that out. There are a couple of reasons I will NEVER be good at couponing. The first is that I forget to bring them with me to the store! It has actually become a joke in my house when it comes to me and the coupons. Secondly, there are very few products that my family eats or uses that have coupons. If you have ever noticed, it is not the healthiest food!!! We eats lots of fruit and veggies which don't have coupons....

Still, I like to save money at the grocery store as much as the next person. I want to share with you how I have found the ability to knock some dollars off the grocery bill WITHOUT COUPONS. 

1. Find a grocery store where you find the prices overall cheaper. This may take you a couple of weeks of shopping to figure this out. I would take a standardized list and go to each store,...

This was one of those days! Have you ever had one where it just didn't go as planned? I had a solid plan for the day or did I?

My first sign that the plan wasn't going so well was my oversleeping by 15 minutes. This may not sound like a lot but my schedule runs tight. Now, the day is starting off rushed!! I managed to get myself out the door and to work on time. The day moved along and I knew in the back of my mind what my evening was going to look like or so  i thought. It changed with the ring of the phone, my husband letting me know he wasn't going to do his end of kid pick up for the evening. Ugh....okay time to regroup. 

I had to map out in my head what was going to be most productive of my time for everyone. Our 2 high schoolers needed to be picked up along with our 5th grader. The biggest caveat here is that we live in a traffic gridlock area. Deciding who to pick up first was going to be crucial to salvaging the evening. I took a deep breath and just went on my...

I just have to ask, do you have alot of emails? I mean a lot...like more than a thousand? That was me!!! I actually had over 10,000 emails, mostly JUNK!!!!! Every time I logged in it actually began to bother me. I kept thinking I needed to make time to go through them all. But, when was I going to have that kind of time? Even if I went through 50/day it was going to take me along time. There was an overwhelmingfeeling creeping in so I decided to do something about it. Guess what I did? I deleted them ALL!!!

I felt a little queasy at first but then I decided if there was anything truly important I would probably receive another email. My mind had tricked me to believe that I couldn't get rid of these emails because they might be needed. I did take out the newest emails that were pertinent and content related and moved them to a file. I couldn't go through them all so I had to prioritize. Figuring the more recent emails might be current information I would need was what...